“Sure of what?”
“That you’re okay and that he’s completely out of your system?”
“Of course.”
“And Mike saying that he loves you means absolutely nothing to you . . . because you don’t love him back.” Carla’s words were presented as a statement and not a question, therefore, Sonya didn’t feel it needed answering. But she did say, “I’m sure he’ll figure out that he’s totally wrong about those feelings sooner or later.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Sonya nervously licked her lips. “Of course, he will. He’s had women before I’m sure; several of them. I just surprised him in bed. I wasn’t what he expected. Remember he said he didn’t do chocolate.”
Carla rolled her eyes. “Is that what this is all about? You proving him wrong or him proving you wrong?”
“No, of course not. We had dispensed with all of that before we made it to the bedroom. We slept together for pleasure.”
“And not love.”
“Yes, and not love.”
Carla didn’t say anything for a quick minute and then, “I gather from Jesse that Mike isn’t someone who expounds on his emotions freely. In fact, Jesse really thought there wasn’t a woman out there capable of capturing Mike’s heart. You’ve proven him wrong.”
Sonya shrugged. “And like I said, he’ll get over it.”
Carla looked at her with a very serious expression. “I hope you don’t make the same mistake with Mike that I made with Jesse. A woman finds true love only once in her lifetime and when she does, she doesn’t turn her back on it. She cherishes it and adores the man who gives it to her.”
She paused and then added, “You’re right, if you have captured Mike’s heart, he will get over it eventually. But it will cost you his love if you later decide you made a mistake and that he’s the man for you. By then it will be too late. You would have lost him, Sonya. So, think about what you’re doing. You could lose him. Do you really want to do that?”
Sonya lifted her chin. “Why would I care?”
Carla reached across the table and captured her best friend’s hand in hers. “Because I think that deep down you do love Mike, but you’re afraid to admit it. You’re afraid to give your heart to him or any man. You don’t want to take the chance of getting hurt. Admit it and think about it.”
• • •
Sonya thought a lot about it on her way back to the office; especially when she got there and found yet another floral arrangement on her desk that had been sent from Mike. The card from the first arrangement had merely said . . . Thinking of you on Valentine’s Day.
This card said. I want you. Come by my place later.
She drew in a quick breath and at the same time she felt a quickening in the pit of her stomach. What was there about Mike that could drive her to stimulated desire so quickly and easily? Instead of getting a grip on reality, she wanted to get a grip on a certain part of him instead. She had liked the way it had fit in her hand; it felt both hard and smooth to the touch. And she had liked his taste. It was so uniquely his.
Feeling breathless, she opened her desk drawer and slid in the card to join the other one and then let out a long sigh when she felt a telltale ache between her legs. Why had he sent the flowers? Hadn’t he heard anything she’d said on Saturday? It was as if he had chosen to ignore the words she had spoken.
She got up from her desk and walked over to the window and looked out. At least he hadn’t said anything on the card about loving her and that was good. He had said he wanted her, which was language she understood, something she could handle. Mainly because she wanted him too, but she didn’t want to give him the wrong idea about anything. Should she call him and plan to meet with him later? They never did get a second day of lovemaking like they had planned. As far as she was concerned, he still owed her that.
She shook her head, not believing where her mind was going. What was there about Mike that made her go crazy, and not to think logically? She walked back to her desk to sit down. She had plenty of work to do to keep her busy and after work she would head straight for home.
To her house and not Mike’s.
Dragging in a deep breath, Sonya stiffened her spine before pressing Mike’s doorbell. On the drive over she’d tried convincing herself that the only reason she had taken the exit off Interstate 4 instead of going straight home was because Mike had sent her two arrangements of flowers. That meant he deserved for her to at least deliver a thank-you in person. Flowers weren’t cheap these days.
She almost jumped when his voice came through the intercom system by the door. “Who is it?”
“It’s Sonya.”
“Punch in 50799 and come on in.”
After punching in the numbers, she slowly opened the door, wondering if she would find him half naked and working out on his exercise equipment like before.
“Hello, Sonya.”
She nearly jumped again. She hadn’t expected to find him in the living room standing by the window with his hands in his pockets. “Mike.”
She then took a deep breath. “I’m not here because you asked me to come.”
He lifted a brow. “You’re not?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
She shrugged, trying not to notice how good he looked. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a pullover sweater. His feet were bare, and his hair was damp which gave her the impression he hadn’t long taken a shower. “I dropped by to thank you for the flowers today.”
“You could have called,” he said moving a few feet away from the window.
Her eyes narrowed. “Yes, but considering the cost of flowers, I thought you deserved a personal thank-you.”
He leaned against the arch that separated his dining room from his living room. “I can afford the flowers, Sonya.”
“I’m sure you can but . . .”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “But what?”
“I’ve never gotten flowers before. And you sent two of them.” She held his gaze and then she asked, “Why?”
• • •
A part of Mike couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with Sonya when what he really wanted to do was cross the room and kiss her senseless. But he knew he couldn’t do that. Chalk it up to pure arrogance on his part, but he truly believed that she loved him, and like he’d told her last week, she was too afraid to admit it; too afraid to give her heart to any man for fear of it getting broken. He knew the feeling, but if he was willing to take a chance on love, then he wanted her to be willing to take a chance as well.
With him.
He was well aware that she thought the only thing between them was sex, but he knew differently. The sex had been good. Real good. But he believed the main reason it had been so good was because love, not lust, had been the driving force behind everything they had done that night; everything they had shared. Every single orgasm they had experienced.
“Mike?”
It then occurred to him that she was waiting on a response about why he’d sent the flowers. “You know why I sent them, Sonya. It’s Valentine’s Day. And I will continue to send them, even after we’re married.”
She shook her head like she’d missed something. “Excuse me?”
“I said I will send the flowers even after we’re married.”
She lifted a chin. “Married?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “You go from being in love with me on Saturday to wanting to marry me today?”
A smile touched his lips. He could see she was confused. “Not really. I would have discussed the marriage part on Saturday, but you got scared and left.”
He gave her a brief moment to absorb that before saying, “One thing you’re going to find out about me, Sonya, is that I’m a man who might be slow when it comes to some things, but if it’s something that I want, something I truly want, then I don’t waste time going after it.”
&
nbsp; Mike took a few steps closer to her. “I love you. And you can stand there in that spot all night and try and convince me that you don’t love me back, but I won’t believe you.”
She threw up her hands in frustration. “Why? Just because we enjoyed each other in bed Saturday night?”
“No, because you’re standing in my living room right now. If you didn’t love me, you wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t have come.”
She shrugged. “I told you why I came.”
“I know. To thank me for the flowers. In that case, thank me and leave.”
She inhaled deeply and said, “Thank you for the flowers, Mike.”
“You’re welcome.”
And then she turned and headed for the door. Before she could reach it, he said, “I might as well tell you that in addition to marriage, I want babies, too. At least three of them.”
She continued walking while he said, “I’ve watched you with Craig and Jessica and know that you’ll be an excellent mother. I already know you’ll make me a wonderful wife, just like I intend to be a wonderful husband to you and a good father to our children. I will be the only man you will ever need.”
When her hand reached for the door, he added, “I’m not going to give up on you, Sonya. Nor will I lose interest. And the flowers will keep coming. I’ll do whatever it takes for you to see that we have a future together. And I mean every word that I say.”
• • •
She eased open the door thinking Mike was trying to mess with her mind . . . like he had already messed with her heart. She hesitated when her hand began to tremble. How could he have known her heart when she hadn’t until this very moment? She lowered her head when she felt pressure, more than she could stand, lodge right there in her temple. She didn’t want to love him. But then she didn’t want to lose him.
He and Carla had been right. She was afraid. She didn’t want to ever go through the pain her mother had gone through when her dad had left her for another woman. She didn’t want to ever feel that sort of rejection. For her it had been easier to be the one doing the rejecting.
But Mike refused to let her do that. He refused to let her turn her back on what he knew was in her heart. She slowly pushed the door closed and turned back around. Her gaze met his across the room. “How did you know?” she whispered brokenly, fighting back the tears she felt lodged in the back of her eyes. “How did you know?”
Mike held her gaze as he crossed the room. When he came to a stop in front of her, he said, “I knew you had fallen in love with me the same way I knew that I had fallen in love with you. That night that we made love, it was the most compelling thing that I’d ever experienced in my entire life, and I knew it had to be the same way for you. I’ve engaged in casual sex before, but nothing had ever been that powerful. No woman had ever been that giving. And regardless of what you said, a part of me was convinced that we were on one accord, our emotions were in sync. I loved you and you loved me.”
He reached out and lifted her chin so their gazes could meet. “Admit it. You do love me.”
She felt the single tear fall from her eye. “Yes. I love you but I was afraid to. In a way I’m still afraid to.”
“Don’t be. I will be here for you always.”
“It won’t be easy loving me,” she said stubbornly. “I’m not used to taking the lead from any man. I can be hard to handle.”
He chuckled as he pulled her closer into his arms. “You don’t think I know that? Trust me, I will handle you or die trying.”
Sonya smiled. She could definitely believe that. She was suddenly swept off her feet into his arms.
“You know, we never got around to day two of our lovemaking marathon,” he whispered, close to her ear.
“Does that mean we’re going to finish things up now?” she heard herself asking.
“Now is as good a time as any. Then I’ll take you home to get dressed. I’ve made dinner reservations for us tonight to celebrate this special day.”
A day for lovers.
She looked up at him when he placed her on the bed. “You were so sure I would come here today, weren’t you?”
His expression turned serious. “I hoped and prayed that you would, but you can be stubborn. That’s something I’m going to have to work on.”
“But not today?’’
He smiled. “No, definitely not today.”
And then he eased onto the bed with her, pulled her into his arms and captured her lips with his. She opened her mouth on a breathless sigh and the moment his tongue tangled with hers, every cell within her body came alive, every nerve ending felt sensitized.
“Let me love you,” he whispered when he pulled back from her lips.
“Only if you let me love you.”
Mike met her gaze, held it and then he eased off the bed and began removing his shirt. “Our reservations are at eight. That won’t give us much time.”
A smile touched her lips as her eyes fastened on the movement of his hands when he eased down his zipper. She scooted across the bed to the edge and reached out to slide her hand beneath the waistband to close her fingers around him; that part of him she’d been thinking a lot about lately. She heard his indrawn breath when she did so. With her free hand she pulled his jeans down past his hips. Then she bent her head and placed kisses all over his firm, taut stomach.
“Sonya.”
Her name was a sensuous whisper off his lips and wanting to cherish him in this special way, a way she knew from the last time gave him intense pleasure, she lowered her head and placed a hot, wet, open- mouthed kiss on his shaft before taking the hardened flesh into her mouth. The very thought of what she was doing to him, the man she could now admit she loved, made her entire body shudder. Her mouth adored him, her tongue stroked him, and her hands soothed and captivated him. And when she felt his body jerk, her mouth clung to him, refusing to let up or let go.
When the last tremors had left his body, she pulled her mouth back only to have him push her down on her back. “Now it’s my turn,” he said, throwing up her skirt to ease down her panties. And then he was there, taking both of her legs and placing them over his shoulders. Before she could release a shriek of protest, his mouth was there between her legs, inside of her, probing the bud he found there, tasting and loving her in the same manner that she had just loved him.
“Mike!”
The tongue that was relentlessly stroking her felt scalding hot, whiplash quick, meticulously on target. Nothing, not even the hands that were digging into his scalp, could deter him from his goal. She moaned repeatedly, asking him to stop, then in the same breath, asking him not to stop. She even threatened him with bodily harm if he did so.
And then she felt it, an explosion like her body was coming apart, cell by cell. She screamed his name. Closed her eyes and screamed some more. She felt like she was in a cannon and being shot to Venus and back. When she finally came back down to earth, she inhaled deeply and opened her eyes to see the man she loved right there. His blue eyes staring down at her.
“More?” he asked, smiling at her.
With what little strength she had, she reached up and curled a blonde lock of hair around her finger. She returned his smile. “Yes, more.”
He took the time to remove the rest of his clothes and then hers, and when she reached out to him with open arms, he came into them, positioned his body over hers and entered her. He sank deeper into her with every moan she made. When he had made it all the way to the hilt, he held his body immobile and locked his gaze with hers.
“Now I’ll give you more,” he whispered before claiming her mouth and moving his body.
Passion led the way, cleared the path and he rocked his body into hers, over and over with a surging need that she met each and every time. She could actually feel emotions that she had tried holding at bay for so long erupting under such profound intimacy. And when release came, both were shaken to the core, drenched with desire and swept mercilessly into a sea of ecstasy.
> It was a true melding of bodies, hearts and souls.
“Surprise!”
Lights came on and Carla and Jesse’s eyes blinked wide. To say the couple was caught unaware would be an understatement. They had arrived at Mike’s under the false assumption that they would be joining Mike and Sonya for a special dinner to celebrate the couple’s engagement announcement.
Mike, ignoring the, I’m going to kill you look from Jesse, wrapped his arms around his bride-to-be, glad to have been able to pull one over on his best friend. He and Sonya had decided on an April wedding. That only gave Sonya a little more than a month to prepare, but according to the wedding planner she had hired, that wouldn’t be a problem.
And Mike had already found the perfect home for them; one he thought would fit their needs. Sonya would be moving into it within a few weeks. He decided to wait until after the wedding to officially move in. However, he had assured Sonya that he would definitely drop by for occasional sleepovers.
He glanced around the room at the other couples that had been invited; couples like Grey and Brandy Masters, Cord and Amber Jeffries, and a number of others he’d met since moving to Orlando. Mike still considered his home base as Los Angeles. He and Sonya, who after the wedding would begin working for him as his marketing manager, would be doing frequent visits between both the West Coast and East Coast offices.
An hour or so later while the party was in full swing, Mike took Sonya’s hand and pulled her with him outside on the patio, needing to be alone with her for a few minutes. Once in private he pulled her into his arms and gave her a long, deep kiss.
When he released her, she smiled up at him. “What was that for?”
He smiled back. “To say thanks for doing such a great job. Jesse and Carla were really surprised. They had no idea.”
Sonya chuckled. “I know. All things considered, I think everything is going well.”
“It is. You throw a great party, the soon-to-be Mrs. Mike Kelly. Umm. And that reminds me.”
THE SWEETEST TABOO (BENNETT SERIES 2.5) Page 8